Communion, Covenant, and Creativity: An Approach to the Communion of Saints Through the Arts - Hardcover

Haymes, Brian; Kidd, Richard L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1532668643 ISBN 13: 9781532668647

Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2020

Synopsis

This book is a follow-up to a previous volume by the same three authors, Baptists and the Communion of Saints: A Theology of Covenanted Disciples, though it does not require familiarity with the first study. The present book offers new perspectives on belief in the ""communion of saints"" by interpreting it through the idea of ""covenant,"" with its two dimensions of relations with God and with each other. Giving attention to the creative arts of painting, music, poetry, and story writing, the authors explore ""indications"" of a hidden ""communion of saints"" through embodiment, memory, and connectivity. Included are studies of the work of visual artists Paul Nash and Mark Rothko; musicians John Tavener, Elgar, and Brahms; and writers Thomas Hardy, T. S. Eliot, and James Joyce. Theological reflection on these hints of communion offers a vision of an ongoing communion of prayer with the saints, alive and dead, which does not depend on a dualistic idea of a disembodied soul existing after death but which affirms the Christian tradition of the resurrection of the body. Communion, covenant, and creativity are thus linked to develop a Christian aesthetics based on a mutual indwelling between the triune God and the world.

About this title

About the Author

Paul S. Fiddes is Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford and Principal Emeritus of Regent's Park College, Oxford. Brian Haymes was formerly Principal of Bristol Baptist College. Richard L. Kidd was formerly Principal of Northern Baptist College, Manchester.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1532668643
• ISBN 13: 9781532668647
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 210
• Editor: Fiddes Paul S.